Modeling electric field sensitive scanning probe measurements for a tip of arbitrary shape

TL;DR

This paper introduces a numerical modeling approach for electric field sensitive scanning probe microscopy that accommodates arbitrary tip shapes and accurately accounts for sample dielectric layers, improving the understanding of spatial resolution.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel numerical method that models arbitrary-shaped tips and includes image charge effects for dielectric overlayers in scanning probe microscopy.

Findings

Achieves good agreement with experimental spatial resolution data.

Provides a flexible modeling tool for various tip geometries.

Enhances understanding of subsurface charge imaging techniques.

Abstract

We present a numerical method to model electric field sensitive scanning probe microscopy measurements which allows for a tip of arbtrary shape and invokes image charges to exactly account for a sample dielectric overlayer. The method is applied to calculate the spatial resolution of a subsurface charge accumulation imaging system, achieving reasonable agreement with experiment.